Tell me about Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

[nyvinter]

Agreed, I'd really love a revised vehicle conflict system. But I also don't think I've seen any really good ship to ship combat in any RPG.

In theory the "everyone on the ship should have something to do during combat" seems fine but it just turns it into a clunky minigame.

 

[nyvinter]

True, though I will point out the version of Leia they cite as inspiration (along with Bail) is her Rebels appearance.

But it still feels less like a Diplomat than the original one for me.

I do look forwards to their original careers though. And there should be more universal specialisations so hope they do some of those as well.

 

[Staffan]

Agreed, I'd really love a revised vehicle conflict system. But I also don't think I've seen any really good ship to ship combat in any RPG.

In theory the "everyone on the ship should have something to do during combat" seems fine but it just turns it into a clunky minigame.

I think it's theoretically possible to make a good vehicle combat system in an RPG. But in order to do that, you pretty much have to make the vehicle central to the game. Like, "This is a game where you play mech pilots" or "You're the bridge crew of a starship." It can't be an add-on. That is, it doesn't necessarily have to be an all the time thing – there are plenty of Star Trek episodes where they don't get into a battle. But with very few exceptions, the ship itself is always present, and people are fulfilling roles aboard it, and they mostly have assigned roles should the red alert be called.

 

[JConstantine]

The one area that I felt didn't work well in FFG is ground vehicle combat. They're on the starfighter/light freighter damage scale... which, BTW, also is the same scale used for capital ships.

Agreed, I'd really love a revised vehicle conflict system.

I've not utilised it myself in practice, but vehicle combat in Genesys is largely considered a rework/2.0 that brings ground vehicles more inline with personal scale. The downside, from what I've read, is that then gets wonky for starships. So hypothetically, Genesys for planetary vehicles, default SW for space should work out.

In theory the "everyone on the ship should have something to do during combat" seems fine but it just turns it into a clunky minigame.

In my experience, it ends up feeling similar to a D&D-style skill challenge.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Agreed, I'd really love a revised vehicle conflict system. But I also don't think I've seen any really good ship to ship combat in any RPG.

Have you checked out Pirate Borg?

 

[Agamon]

The one area that I felt didn't work well in FFG is ground vehicle combat. They're on the starfighter/light freighter damage scale... which, BTW, also is the same scale used for capital ships.
Scale is the one area where I felt WEG really did do it a lot better.

As far as Saga Edition... blech. The sourcebooks I've skimmed seemed to have decent writing, but it just was too close to D&D mechanics for me.

I remember looking it over and feeling ill at ease at thinking of SW with levels.

 

[Staffan]

I remember looking it over and feeling ill at ease at thinking of SW with levels.

One of the things I did like about the various d20 versions of Star Wars compared to D6 was that it allowed for binary special abilities, both in the form of feats and from class talents (and with Advanced/Prestige classes, often as direct class abilities). D6 was fairly purely skill-based, with alien species being the only way to get special stuff.

Fortunately, FFG allows for the same without using levels, via its talent trees.